Summer Fun

From Jezebel: "An Anonymous Interview With a Grown Man Who Pees in the Pool"

According to a new survey conducted jointly by the Water Quality & Health Council and the Ruin Summer Forever Brotherhood of Killjoys, one in five adults admits to peeing in public swimming pools. Gross, right? I managed to track down one of these unrepentant pool pee-ers and get him to answer for his crimes. Here's what happened.

A Few More Trapeze Pics

What Aerial Dance Did for Me

I'm typing this from the comfort of my couch, my feet propped up and aching. My shoulders ache, too. And it actually kind of hurts to type because my fingers and palms are rubbed raw. In fact, it hurts to sit at all now that I think about it, because there's a very large burn on my back and a bruise on my right thigh. Aerial dance is punishing, y'all, but so worth it.

I first saw aerial dance the same place most people probably do: at a Cirque du Soleil performance. It was Quidam, which to this day remains my favorite Cirque show. There was an aerialist on silks, and dudes, she was hot. This new-to-me art form looked amazing, but it never occurred to me I could learn how to do it. Then several years later, we moved to Montreal, which is arguably the capital of aerial dance in North America. In fact, we lived just a few blocks from the Cirque training center and just a short bus ride from the circus school. We used to ride our bikes behind the training center, and every time I would get a glimpse of the building, I would think how cool it would be to join the circus. But I assumed you had to be born into it, or train as a gymnast your whole life, or know the right people. A regular person with no connections could dream, but that would be the end of it. And then, just a couple of years ago, my mom invited me to go see a trapeze performance at Canopy Studio in Athens, Georgia. On the way in, I noticed a class schedule lying on a table. Wait a minute, I thought. A class schedule? You mean, they teach classes in this shit? What?!

I think I signed up the next day.

When I walked in to my first trapeze class, I felt incredibly nervous and shy and tired and isolated and all sorts of other negative things. I had just adopted twins from Ethiopia, moved back to the US from Canada, and I was adapting to this new role of stay-at-home mother, all of which had sparked something of an identity crisis. In short, I was a mess. But when I walked into Canopy, none of that mattered.

Joining "the circus" has taught me many things. It has taught me that every person has something to contribute, regardless of their size, age, or physical ability. It has taught me that being part of a group can provide healing in ways that going it alone cannot. It has taught me that when my brain fails me, I must trust my body. It has taught me that sometimes the only way to learn something new is to first fail, and fail, and fail again. And it has taught me that I have the strength within myself to do almost anything. I am strong. I did not know that before.

I think when many people hear that I am an aerialist, they think it is a weird or cute or quirky hobby, but it is so much more than that. Trapeze really is a part of who I am. My trapeze is part of me, like another limb, and I cannot imagine living without it.

The Best Article on Marriage, Ever

This is the best article I've read on marriage, ever. People ask me all the time how we do it, but I have never, ever have been able to articulate our marriage strategy as well as this author does.

What I Hate About Mother's Day

Here's another take on Mother's Day, and I have to say it's one I agree with more than just a little. I mean, my kids still know what Mother's Day is, but I am hoping to raise them to see it as a day to appreciate the women who support and nurture them, mothers or not.

Mother's Day Weekend

A few trips to the beach, swinging in a banyan, a sunset picnic, shrimp truck and shave ice, and some delicious grown-up drinks are making this weekend a real winner. Sometimes living in Hawaii is exactly what you expect it to be.

Love, and Love Indiscriminately

A few weeks ago, a woman I love very much finally got married...to her girlfriend. We couldn't be there in person, but the fact that they both had enough love and courage to stand up before friends and family and declare their loyalty and love for one another was as inspiring as any wedding I have ever attended. More, perhaps, because I knew what they both went through to be able to have that experience. The only thing that made me sad was that their marriage wasn't legal. It won't be recognized in the state they got married in, and it won't be recognized in the state they live in. And while I felt sad, I also felt immensely grateful that I happened to have a relationship that the state does recognize as valid and worth supporting.

Most of the people I've met who are opposed to equal rights for gays are Christians. This baffles me, because the overriding message I got from a Christian upbringing is that Christ is love. Christ is love. And so what should one do to be more like Christ? It seems like, above all, one should love and love indiscriminately. Love our family. Love our friends and neighbors. And even love our enemies. So how in the world does any person who identifies him or herself as a Christian stand confidently in public and proclaim that any other person should be treated as lesser than? Do these people really think that by refusing to love their fellow humans they will be rewarded by God? There are so many things one can take away from a reading of the Bible. Why choose hate and anger? Above love? Really? A friend of mine recently said, "If we are ever in doubt, err on the side of love. To love everyone as Christ loves us is always a credit to us--it cannot be counted against us, no matter whom we love."

I'm not asking you to feel totally comfortable with homosexuality. I'm not expecting that you will instantly drop all negative emotions you may have attached to the idea of homosexuality. That kind of change takes long and deliberate work, and it's totally up to you if you have the desire and inclination to put the work in. But what I am asking you to do is to support love wherever you find it. To reject inequality and discrimination. To not deny your neighbors the wonderful satisfaction of having their love and loyalty to each other recognized by the government. To support marriage by, well, supporting marriage. For everyone.